A campaign group called “Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking” claims it has seen legal papers filed by the tech giant where the latter declared itself exempt from British privacy legislation. However, Google is reported to refuse to accept service of the lawsuit in the United Kingdom, so the outfit would have to take the fight to the US. According to their claim, Google openly said that tracking features were installed on desktops and mobiles when people used Safari browser, even after they were chosen to be blocked, thus allowing Google to track the browsing habits of people without their consent.

In the United States, the company had to pay a $22.5 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission, when it was caught out by a law student and security researcher. Safari Users said in a statement that it seemed absurd to suggest that people couldn’t bring a claim against the entity operating in the country and even building a $1 billion headquarters in London. Apparently, the ICO can only fine the tech giant if it violates the law, but Google doesn’t think it is bound by that law. However, fines would be useless anyway, because the company can earn more than the maximum fine in just two hours.

The claimants suggested the ICO alternative sanctions, because the fines appear to be only a drop in the ocean for the tech giant. The group proposed plain English warnings on Google’s search homepage about how it harvests information, reversing the company’s merger of information across all services, and placing an apology on its search homepage.

Although the ICO’s response was dismissive, it should be noted that France’s regulator, CNIL, has been more robust, as it announced an ultimatum to the tech giant to ensure that its privacy policy complies with EU legislation. A week ago, the US Consumer Watchdog confirmed that Google had openly acknowledged Gmail users couldn’t expect “legitimate” privacy. In response, ICO claimed they have an ongoing investigation into whether its privacy policy complies with the British legislation. The outfit has also raised concerns with Google that it fails to provide sufficient data to enable British users to understand how their information is being used.

ICO pointed out that failure to take the necessary action to improve the policies compliance with the Data Protection Act within 4 weeks will leave Google open to the possibility of formal enforcement action.